Certain appliances, such as refrigerator appliances, include an ice maker. In order to produce ice, liquid water is directed to the ice maker and frozen. A variety of ice types can be produced depending upon the particular ice maker used. For example, certain ice makers include a mold body for receiving liquid water. An auger within the mold body can rotate and scrape ice off an inner surface of the mold body to form ice nuggets. Such ice makers are generally referred to as nugget style ice makers. Certain consumers prefer nugget style ice makers and their associated ice nuggets.
During ice making operations, heat is generally conducted away from water within the mold body. Some ice makers use a liquid cooling system to draw heat from the mold body. However, such systems may be difficult to assemble and/or repair. Moreover, it is possible that a portion of the liquid cooling system may leak if it is not properly maintained. Although some air-cooled systems exist, large amounts of energy are often required to ensure an adequate heat exchange.
Accordingly, ice maker assemblies with features for rapidly cooling or drawing heat from water to be frozen would be useful. It would be further useful if such assemblies were able to use air as a heat exchange medium while still minimizing the energy used to freeze ice nuggets.